"How did they figure it out?" Tony growled as soon as he walked into the conference room. He'd tampered his anger down for Peter's sake, but now that Peter was safe upstairs, he felt it was fine to finally let it out.

Everyone made faces at each other around the table but no one answered his question. So, it was going to be like that.

"Well?" He asked, this time aiming his question at Pepper. She wouldn't be afraid to tell him the hard stuff.

Pepper sighed but met his eyes unflinchingly. "You're not going to like it."

"I already don't like it." He snapped and sat down heavily in the empty chair at the head of the table, Pepper to his immediate right. Just like old times.

"Somehow they got ahold of the name change paperwork."

"What?"

"I told you you wouldn't like it." Pepper pursed her lips. "It gets worse. They dug deeper and found the adoption paperwork as well."

"So there's no way we can deny this." Tony rubbed a hand roughly over his forehead and eyes.

"No."

"So what do we do now? Besides figuring out who leaked this and suing the hell out of them."

"Naturally." Pepper agreed. "That's already being looked into as we speak."

"Good."

"But as to how we deal with this…" She sighed. "I'm open to ideas."

"You're kidding."

Pepper stared him down. She obviously wasn't kidding.

"We don't have anything set up for this? No contingency plan? Nothing? It's not like we haven't been flirting with this exact disaster for the past two months." He looked at all his employees lined up on either side of the table. "What do I pay you people for?"

"To be fair, you didn't want a contingency plan." Pepper said, tone sharp without raising her voice.

"I never said that."

"Yes you did. When the first photo leaked I gave you options for how to deal with this and you wanted to deny it, and then later when I wanted to talk to you about putting together a contingency plan just in case, you told me 'you didn't want to think about it and you'd figure it out if something happened.' Is that ringing any bells?"

"You don't have to air quote me." He complained as Pepper's hands fell from doing just that back to their loose clasp on the table. He actually did remember that conversation now. It'd been about a week after the first photo leak. He'd been in a terrible mood and Pepper had wanted to talk about coming up with a plan for what to do if one of his worst case scenarios happened, if Peter's identity leaked, and he, well, he hadn't wanted to think about it at the time. He'd wanted to stick his head in the sand and hope for the best instead. Not one of his better decisions, clearly.

Pepper raised an eyebrow at him.

"And you listened to me?" He asked as he threw his hands up and practically jumped out of his chair. "You never listen to me. This is the one time you decide not to go behind my back and come up with something on your own anyway?"

Pepper glared at him.

"What? You know it's true. You do do that!" He held a finger up in defense.

Melanie, his head of PR, sitting to his left, cleared her throat. "I think maybe we're getting a little off topic here Mr. Stark."

"Yes. Yes we are." He broke away from Pepper's death glare and rubbed at his eyes again before turning to her, "Melody, tell me what you're thinking."

"Melanie." She corrected automatically without surprise or displeasure, more than used to his antics by now.

"Yeah yeah." He nodded and waved his hand in a circle as an indication for her to start talking.

"We need to make a statement."

"Yes, obviously."

Melanie gave him a look that was such a mirror image of Pepper's that he felt dizzy for a second.

"What I mean is, what do you suggest we say?" He tried to be civil and looked over to Pepper for her approval, but she still had her stony business face in place.

"We confirm that you adopted Peter this summer. We should give them a little bit about his background, how you got to know each other, the circumstances that led to his adoption—"

"Do they really need to know all that? I don't really want to splash my kid's life across the tabloids."

"That's what I'm trying to keep from happening Mr. Stark." Melanie said in a carefully controlled tone. "If we give them nothing then it'll only be worse. They'll be relentless digging for more information on him."

"They're going to do that anyway." God, they were. His poor kid's life was going to get turned inside out.

"Yes, but this way we can control it. We set the context. We give them enough information to satiate their curiosity but not so much that they know everything about Peter."

He hated the idea of giving the vultures anything.

"Melanie's right Tony. This is how we need to do this." Pepper agreed.

"Fine." He held his palms up in defeat. He knew they were right, but he still didn't like it.

"I would also suggest that we release a few handpicked photos of the two of you together." A brunette to the left of Melanie piped in. Tony would've admired her courage if her suggestion hadn't set his temper alight.

"No. Absolutely not." He wanted to yell, but he grit out the refusal at a low level volume instead.

More hesitant glances amongst his employees around the table ensued.

"You should listen to her." Natasha spoke up.

"Oh I'm sorry I thought you were here to listen, not offer up advice on how to deal with my kid and my company." He sniped, annoyed that she was taking their side.

Nat met his anger coolly. "If you don't, they'll keep doing what they've been doing these past couple months. Photos of the two of you together and photos of just him now that they know he's your son. If you don't give them something they're going to hound both of you until they get it, and you know it."

He hated that she was right.

"Dammit." He swore and stood, knocking his desk chair over in the process. Pepper didn't so much as flinch. Tony grit his teeth as he turned his back on the table and took a couple steps toward the wall, where he stood facing it while he closed his eyes and took a few calming breaths.

He hated this situation with a burning anger he hadn't felt in a long time, like a smoldering flame deep inside his belly growing white hot as more oxygen was added to it. He'd never wanted this for Peter. He loved him. He was his son but somehow he'd foolishly thought he'd be able to keep him separate from all the evil and burdens that came with that. He had to accept that it was impossible now. And he needed to stay strong and collected for Peter even if on the inside he was having a breakdown.

"I'm sorry." He said, the words coming out strong even though he felt anything but strong at the moment.

He took another deep breath and turned back around, moving to calmly set his chair upright again before standing at his spot at the head of the table. A few of the newer employees looked a little shellshocked but he ignored it. "Fine." He leaned forward, his hands splaying out in front of him on the table. "I'll make a statement and release a few pictures. What else?"

"At the end of your statement, you should be sure to ask for privacy." Joe, the wizened white-haired head of his legal team, suggested, not cowed at all by his minor outburst. He'd been on staff since pre-Ironman times.

"Of course."

"It's too bad you don't still live in California." Joe added. "Because of Peter's status as a minor, it would give him some protections. California passed a law in 2013 that makes it illegal to intentionally harass children of celebrities, such as for the purpose of taking photos."

"And that's only a law in California?" He frowned.

"As of now." Joe nodded. "But if you want, I could write up a proposal for the governor to pass a similar law here. It's a long shot but it wouldn't hurt, especially if you don't want to move."

"We're not moving to California."

Joe shrugged.

"But yes, do that." A law like that sure would've been helpful when he'd been a child.

"Of course, sir."

"Tony," Cap spoke up from his seat at the opposite end of the table, "have you given any thought to taking Peter up to the compound instead of staying here? At least until things calm down?"

Tony blinked. He hadn't.

"I mean," Steve continued when his suggestion wasn't met with an immediate refusal, "it's not like he's not going to school tomorrow, right?"

He hadn't thought that far ahead either.

"Right." He said with uncharacteristic hesitance.

"That's a good idea." Natasha agreed. "We can do the press conference here and then go to the compound. It'll give everyone a little more room to breathe."

He nodded absently. Sure. So apparently now he was taking his kid out of school and high tailing it to the compound. Peter wasn't going to like that. He let out another heavy sigh and sat back down in his chair like a puppet with its strings cut.

"How long do you think this media frenzy is going to take to die down?" He asked, aiming his question at Melanie. Maybe they could wait out the worst of it at the compound.

"Hard to say." She hedged.

"Best guess."

"Months." She deadpanned.

"Jesus." He ran a hand through his hair. Definitely too long to wait it out.

"It may be even longer than that. Peter's currently trending on every social media platform out there." A younger guy with blonde hair dressed in a hipster suit added. Tony didn't recognize him but figured he must be one of their social media guys. "The numbers I'm looking at are almost unprecedented."

"Wonderful."

"I recommend not letting him post anything until we have a chance to advise him." The guy added. "I see he's currently active on Instagram and Twitter."

"Sure. I'll take your word for it." Tony huffed. He didn't know what kind of social media presence Peter had. He'd never really needed to worry about it before.

Melanie cleared her throat and piped in, "I'd also like a chance to advise Peter on some things. And give him a short debrief on all of this."

"I'll be doing that." He countered.

"Um," Melanie glanced over at Pepper for some help, "I really think I should at least have a sit down with him.

"Tony." Pepper prompted, throwing her support behind Melanie.

"Fine." He shook his head. "But I talk to him first."

"Of course Mr. Stark."

"When Melanie's done, can I schedule sit down with him as well Mr. Stark?" The blonde guy asked.

He turned to Pepper for help, trying not to feel like his own SI team was competing for his kid's time like the media vultures out there.

"Of course Alex." Pepper answered for him. "How about I put together some sort of schedule for Peter so we don't all completely overwhelm him?"

Heads nodded all around the table.

"And I think we can all agree none of this has to happen today. We can at least give him a little time to let it all sink in first." Pepper added.

Everyone nodded again.

"I'd like a few minutes with him Ms. Potts."

"Me too."

Tony rubbed his eyes again, feeling a splitting headache coming on. Just great. A migraine was exactly what he needed right now.

"I'd also like to reach out to a few of the more reputable media sources and set up some interviews." Paul spoke up and then clarified, "For you. Not Peter. Obviously." Paul was one of the longer standing workers on his PR team who dealt with managing relations between himself and various media sources, which was the reason Tony knew him by name. They'd had some good times in the past, particularly behind the scenes on Letterman back in the nineties.

"Is that really something we need to do right now? It can't wait until tomorrow, or hell, next week?" He snapped, quickly losing his patience with the entire situation.

"No. It can wait." Paul gave him an easy going shrug as if he hadn't just gotten his head bitten off in front of everyone.

"Sorry." His headache was rapidly ratcheting up in intensity. "I know we're at defcom one right now, but can we just deal with only the things that are of immediate importance today? We have the rest of the week to sort everything else out." He dug through his suit pockets and found the tinted sunglasses he'd put on Peter earlier. Now he slid them over his own eyes. They weren't quite dark enough to help with the light sensitivity, but they took the edge off.

"Mr. Stark's right." Pepper supported him. Thank god. "We'll draft a statement for the press and we'll make sure Peter doesn't post anything on social media until he talks to Melanie and Alex. Besides that, what else can't wait and needs to be dealt with right now?"

"Security." His new head of security, Hans something or other, said.

Tony just stared at him for a couple long seconds, the statement not computing.

"For the kid." Hans added as if sensing his confusion.

Tony's brow's furrowed briefly before he realized it was a completely legitimate concern. Shit. No one knew Peter was Spiderman besides the Avengers and his two nerdy school friends. Of course Peter would need his own security detail, just like Tony had when he was a kid.

"Yeah." He gave his head a little shake as if clearing the fog. "Of course."

"I'll put together a proposal for his personal security." Hans continued. "And I'll speak to his school about what security measures we can take there."

Tony pulled his glasses off and tossed them onto the table before putting his face in his hands, elbows resting on the table in front of him.

"Yep." He agreed, not sounding happy at all. "Mmhm."

"We'll also need to put together different protocols for when he's ready to go back in public, and I'd like to have some time to discuss certain scenarios with him." Hans continued.

"Tony." Pepper prompted when he said nothing.

"I'm listening." He said into his palms.

"I also think it'd be prudent for me to spend some time with him one on one to teach him some basic hand to hand combat moves."

"I can do that." Natasha spoke up.

Hans inclined his head toward her in respect. "Then I'll leave that to you."

"Great." Tony dropped his hands down swiftly and squinted as he looked around the table. "Anything else?"

Everyone glanced around at each other but no one spoke.

"No? Can we be adjourned then?" Tony asked, turning toward Pepper.

"Let's take a short break everyone. We'll reconvene in ten minutes."

It took everything in him not to legitimately whine to her that he wanted to be done.

Everyone gathered up their things and brusquely left at the dismissal.

"You guys can go." Tony dismissed his Avengers team, who'd stayed behind.

"You sure?" Steve asked.

"Yeah. You need to go let everyone else know about the compound plan, so if any of them want to join they can get busy packing. I know how much luggage Sam travels with." He tried to joke but it came out sounding flat even to him.

Steve gave him a small smile as he and Natasha both stood and left. Once the door had shut behind them, he turned to Pepper and suggested, "You don't really need me for the rest of this, do you?"

Pepper raised her eyebrows at him.

"Come on Pep. We both know you can deal with all the nitty gritty details on your own. Draft up a statement. I'll read it. And then we can talk about everything else tomorrow at the compound." He rubbed at his temples and saw her eyes soften.

"Fine," she agreed, "but only because I can tell you're getting a migraine."

"You know me so well." He gave her a weak half smile.

Pepper checked her watch. "The press conference starts in an hour. Why don't you lie down until then? And take some Excedrin."

He hummed in agreement. That sounded like a great idea but it warred with his guilt about leaving Peter alone. He should really get back to his kid.

"Peter can wait." Pepper continued as if she'd read his mind. "He'll be fine. You need to take care of yourself too. Besides, this way you'll look better for the cameras."

"Hey! I always look great for the cameras."

"I can give you several examples of when you did not." Pepper smirked and gave a small shake of her head.

"Name one." He challenged.

"Ibiza 1999."

"Ooo ouch. Going for blood. To be fair, I was up for almost 72 hours at that point. And I didn't know that one girl's ex-fiance was the captain of that yacht."

"Mmhmm."

"Fine. I'm going to go lay down for one hour." He held up a finger.

"Forty five minutes." Pepper corrected.

"Ok fine. Forty five minutes then. FRI?"

"Alarm set Boss."

He started walking out of the conference room.

"And take that Excedrin."

"Yeah yeah."

"I mean it Tony."

"I will." He said as the door shut behind him, and surprisingly, he actually meant it.

A constant obnoxious low volume beeping, slowly increasing in volume every few seconds, woke him up.

He groaned. The pounding that'd taken up residence behind his eyes still hadn't abated, but it wasn't any worse than when he'd laid down so maybe the Excedrin had actually helped somewhat.

"Boss, you have thirteen minutes to get dressed and downstairs for the press conference."

He groaned again and buried his face in his pillow.

"Boss." FRIDAY prompted again.

"I heard you the first time." He rasped into his pillow. "And they'll wait. It's my press conference, isn't it?"

He didn't know how FRIDAY's silence could sound so disapproving.

After a few long breaths he finally managed to push himself up. He just needed to get this over with. Like ripping off a bandaid. He made his way to the bathroom and splashed some cold water on his face. It helped the headache for the brief second it was in contact with his face but then all the relief faded as quickly as the water washed away. Once he toweled off, he examined his reflection. At least he didn't look half as terrible as he felt. The slight squint between his eyes gave away his discomfort, but that could be cured with a well chosen pair of sunglasses. He fixed his hair so it looked like its classic well manicured bedhead instead of his actual bedhead. That helped. Now all he needed was a good suit and he'd be presentable enough that not even Pepper could complain.

"You have five minutes." FRIDAY reminded him as he walked to the closet.

"Yeah well tell them I'm going to be a little late." He grumbled as he rifled through his clothes. "Knowing me it shouldn't come as too much of a shock."

"Very well."

He donned a crisp white shirt and burgundy tie under a dark navy vest and suit and topped the look off with a pair of oversized sunglasses with black frames and blue shaded lenses. They were just borderline too dark for inside wear but they helped his headache so he refused to care.

"Ms. Potts would like to know when to expect you." FRIDAY said.

"Tell her I'm on my way down right now." He said, doing one last check in the mirror to make sure he looked put together. Usually he wouldn't care so much, but he recognized the importance of this moment. This was how he was going to look when he told the world he had a son. This look would probably be memorialized on the internet and across all the newspapers of the world tomorrow. And not only that, but he knew his appearance for this moment would reflect on Peter, so he wanted to be at his best. Migraine be damned. He'd done press conferences in way worse shape than he was in now. Although this one was probably one of his most personally important. He gave his tie one last adjustment before he decided he was good.

Walking past the kitchen, he practically tripped when the smell of fresh coffee emanating from the pot stopped him in his tracks. His Rolex said he was already five minutes late. Whatever. What was another five? Besides, he was fairly certain that Pepper had been the one to brew it for him while he'd slept. That was something thoughtful she used to do when she knew he had a migraine.

"FRIDAY tell Pep thanks for the coffee." He said as he poured it into a thermos.

"She says you can thank her by getting your ass downstairs. And that's a direct quote Boss."

"Obviously." A corner of his mouth turned up in fond amusement. "Tell her, I'm coming dear."

He pressed the lid on and took a sip. Perfect. Brewed just how he liked it, and hopefully the caffeine would help with his headache.

The elevator doors closed behind him and it dropped like a stone.

"Whoa FRIDAY. Slow it down a little."

"Sorry Boss." FRIDAY responded and the elevator slowed the velocity of its descent. "Ms. Potts requested I expedite your arrival in every way possible."

"Yeah well I'm guessing she doesn't want me to lose my lunch all over my suit in the process because that'd definitely defeat the purpose." He grumbled and took another drink of coffee, hoping it'd help calm the background nausea that had suddenly flared up.

"Would you like me to contact Dr. Banner?" FRIDAY offered.

"No. Just…shhh." He winced and rubbed at his temples before closing his eyes and resting his head against the wall, letting himself have a vulnerable moment while he was still alone.

"Arriving." FRIDAY announced a handful of seconds later, although at a much softer volume than before.

He straightened up and put on his public eye mask as the doors opened and he walked out, taking an immediate left down the hallway that would lead to the auditorium they used for almost all their SI press conferences. He ducked into a side door right before the double doors at the end of the hallway.

"Is it actually impossible for you to be on time for something?" Pepper asked as soon as the door closed behind him. Her tone held no bite, so he knew she wasn't actually mad.

"Maybe."

She rolled her eyes, arms crossed in front of her chest as she looked him up and down. "You look hungover." She decided.

"What? No I don't."

She peered closer at him. "I can barely even see your eyes. At least take the glasses off."

"Well since it feels like a miniature miner is going to town with an icepick in my head right now I'm going to have to pass on that."

Pepper sighed but the lines of her face softened. "Do you need me to reschedule?"

He took another long drag of coffee, half of it gone already. "No. We both know I need to do this today."

She nodded but still looked unsure.

"Don't worry. I've done these things in way worse shape than this. I think I might've even done one or two while I was actually asleep."

That got a true smile out of her. "Oh, I know."

"So this'll be a piece of cake." He said even though he knew the opposite was true.

"If you say so…"

"I do. So where's this statement I'm reading?"

"Here." Pepper handed him a piece of paper with the words typed out on it. Any other day he would've made some quip about how they were using paper when they were the most technologically innovative company in the world, but he just didn't have the energy for it today.

He skimmed it over quickly and set it down on a table nearby. "Can I have a pen?"

"Oh no no. You're not changing anything." Pepper shook her head adamantly.

"Just a few things." He held a hand out while re-reading the paper in front of him.

"No."

He looked up at her. "Pep I promise it'll be fine. Just give me a pen. If it makes you feel better you can read it before I go out there."

She pursed her lips and let out a long sigh but acquiesced and handed him her Mont Blanc pen. "Fine."

He quickly reworded a few phrases, cut a sentence out here and there and then added another few sentences. Once he finished, he re-read it a couple times before handing it over to Pepper along with her pen. "Here."

The noise of the auditorium could be heard through the closed door at the other side of the room. It was the door that would lead him directly into a narrow hallway behind the podium from where he'd make his entrance. He took another long drink of coffee as he waited for Pepper to read over his changes.

"Ok." She said when she'd finished.

"Just ok?" He prompted with a teasing grin.

"It's good. We should be fine as long as you actually stick to the script for once."

"You know I'm allergic." He smirked.

"Believe me, I know." She smiled in amusement.

"But this time, for you, I promise I will try to stick to the cards."

"Good." She gave him a nod and handed the paper back.

He took it, folded it, and tucked it into his suit pocket. She was right. He almost never stuck strictly to the cards, his announcement as Ironman a prime example, but actually only one of many. He had no intention of veering off script this time, though. Not with something this important. Not when it impacted his kid.

They walked toward the door of the auditorium together and paused before it. He turned toward Pepper and she gave him another quick once over, reaching out to fix a few errant hairs and straighten his tie ever so slightly before brushing down his shoulders, a well choreographed dance they'd perfected after so many years together.

"Ready?" She asked.

"As I'll ever be." He smiled but he knew she could see through it, that he was nervous and trying to hide it.

"Tony." She said gently. "It'll be fine."

"Of course it will." He agreed boldly. It had to be. Before either of them could say anything else, he yanked open the door and stepped out.

A/N: Again, sorry for the long wait. I feel like a broken record, but I just don't have much time for writing at the moment, and being in healthcare, things are bad again and work is sucking all my emotional reserves dry, which also doesn't help with creativity and motivation. Anyway, thanks for all your patience and for sticking with me even though it takes me months to get an update up. I appreciate all of you!